Emotional memory and the effect of music on the memory of older adults

Older adults remember emotional stimuli to a greater extent than neutral ones. This would be higher for positive stimuli. Several studies used music to modulate emotional memories in young adults, in the consolidation stage. This was scarcely studied in older adults using negative, positive and neut...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Moltrasio, Julieta, Detlefsen, Verónica, Dominguez, Florencia, Rubinstein, Wanda
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:Uruguay
Institución:Universidad Católica del Uruguay
Repositorio:LIBERI
Idioma:español
inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:liberi.ucu.edu.uy:10895/5574
Acceso en línea:https://revistas.ucu.edu.uy/index.php/cienciaspsicologicas/article/view/2647
https://hdl.handle.net/10895/5574
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Older adults
Music
Emotion
Positive stimuli
Adultos mayores
Música
Emociones
estímulos positivos
Emoções
Estímulos positivos
idosos
Descripción
Sumario:Older adults remember emotional stimuli to a greater extent than neutral ones. This would be higher for positive stimuli. Several studies used music to modulate emotional memories in young adults, in the consolidation stage. This was scarcely studied in older adults using negative, positive and neutral stimuli. The aim of this work is to study emotional memory in older adults and the effect of activating and relaxing music on emotional and neutral visual memory. Forty-four older adults were evaluated. They observed negative, positive, and neutral pictures. Then, a relaxing, activating or white noise musical treatment was applied to them, followed by a free recall and recognition task. A week later, the free recall and recognition tasks were repeated. The results indicated better memory free of emotional stimuli, and a greater number of emotional false positives. Relaxing music worsened delayed recognition, and white noise produced better immediate recall of positive pictures. The results indicate that emotional memory is preserved in older adults. Music modulates memories differently in older adults compared to younger adults, as only relaxing music produced the expected effect.